TV SERIES · 2015– · USA
Galavant
32 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
32 Interesting Facts About Galavant
Interesting Facts (23)
- #001
Timothy Omundson modeled King Richard's voice largely on Prince John in Robin Hood (1973), voiced by Sir Peter Ustinov, which he'd watched many times growing up; he didn't realize he was doing an Ustinov impression until it came up in a 2016 interview.
- #002
After the year-long break following season one, Timothy Omundson struggled to get his English accent back.
- #003
Timothy Omundson told the A. V. Club in 2016: "I've been doing this for twenty-three years and King Richard is a part of my life. This is what I've waited my whole career for."
- #004
To cut each episode down to the network's twenty-two minutes, songs were trimmed along with scenes, so most songs on the digital soundtrack album have extra verses.
- #005
The musical numbers were recorded before filming, and the actors wore earpieces to sing along to the demo tracks; sometimes the studio vocals were kept, sometimes the on-set performances went into the final mix. Most of veteran stage singer Karen David's live vocals made it into the show.
- #006
In season two, Tad Cooper the dragon was played by a bearded dragon named Bruce, and since the show was shot in England in winter, the lizard had to be warmed up on a hot water bottle after every take.
- #007
Viewers immediately assumed King Richard's pet's name was some coded joke, but the writers were just tossing out random names, and everyone agreed "Tad Cooper" had a certain ring to it.
- #008
Vinnie Jones was the first actor cast, signing on as Gareth before the script was even finished.
- #009
Most of the show was shot on location, but in season two the opulent Hortensia palace interiors were an elaborate set, and the wide desert exteriors were filmed in Morocco.
- #010
Karen David's hair extensions were so intricate that braiding took ninety minutes, so she had to leave the hotel at 3:30 a.m. to be in the makeup chair by four.
- #011
Shooting in the UK earned ABC a huge tax rebate, making the lavish production cheaper than the single-camera half-hour comedies it shot in the US.
- #012
Each episode took seven days to shoot, with most musical numbers eating up a whole day.
- #013
On "AfterBuzz TV," Karen David revealed that Vinnie Jones sang "Man-e-ology" in season one, a number about Gareth trying to rally King Richard, but it was cut for time; it's on the soundtrack album Galavant: The Complete Collection.
- #014
In season one, Hortensia sits on a seaside cliff. In season two, the long shot near the end of "World's Best Kiss" used Ait Benhaddou in Ouarzazate, Morocco, with the fortress from season one added on top of the ksar; nearby Ouarzazate is home to the world-famous Atlas Film Studios.
- #015
Luke Youngblood and Karen David had the same reaction to the script: they loved the writing, but on reaching the character descriptions (Sid was described as Jewish, and writer Dan Fogelman had specified Jennifer Lawrence for Isabella), both called their agents convinced they'd never get the parts. NOTE: People of African descent can of course be Jewish; Sammy Davis, Jr., Lenny Kravitz, Lisa Bonet, Zoë Kravitz and Sophie Okonedo are five examples.
- #016
Cast as Princess Isabella, Karen David drew on Princess Diana to play the strong-willed, feminist princess her people adore.
- #017
In December 2014, ABC put up elaborate ads for the show in Los Angeles, California and New York City, New York, with a 3D horse bursting out of billboards of Galavant (Joshua Sasse) on horseback.
- #018
The show's recurring title song has some melodic similarities to "If I Can't Love Her," the song Alan Menken wrote for the 1994 Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast (1991).
- #019
Isabella's dollhouse was such a confined space that it got very hot inside, which was miserable for Karen David and the other actors.
- #020
When the cast and crew landed in Morocco for season two, Karen David was nowhere to be found: a mix-up had made her miss her flight, leaving her stranded at the airport for seven hours.
- #021
The actors first sang to Alan Menken's synthesizer demos, but the final mix used a full 52-piece orchestra.
- #022
During the show they visit a healer named Neo of Sporin, a nod to Neosporin ointment.
- #023
One day Muzz Khan's phone went missing, and with the cast and crew claiming they hadn't seen it, he frantically retraced his steps; when he got back, it was right where he'd left it, with a selfie of Robert Lindsay pulling a silly face on it.
Production Story (1)
- #024
Early screenings of the pilot and online promos used a version of the title song with slightly different, racier lyrics than the aired one, including a verse lingering on Madalena's looks, her appetite for romance and the number of times she and Galavant got together.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #025
After one or two scripted takes, the actors were allowed to improvise. On "AfterBuzz TV AfterShow," Luke Youngblood and Karen David said watching each finished episode for the first time was exciting, since they never knew which takes would make the cut.
Characters & Cast (7)
- #026
Creator Dan Fogelman liked Ben Presley's audition, but his natural Scottish accent made him wrong for the part. Just as Presley was about to head home, he got a call to come back and read for the Jester with a flamboyant English accent, and he surprised them so much that he not only got the part but was also given the job of singing the theme song.
- #027
Timothy Omundson grew a beard between seasons of Psych (2006) and had to shave it off every year when production restarted, so he hoped his next regular job would let him keep it, and that wish came true with King Richard. In several interviews he said how delighted he was that a fan had set up a "King Richard's Beard" Twitter account a few months before the show premiered.
- #028
At the end of season one, the actors were told to pick a memento of their character to keep: Luke Youngblood chose Sid's tapestry from "Two Balls," and Karen David picked the Jewel of Valencia that caused Princess Isabella so much trouble, which she brought along to several talk shows to promote the series.
- #029
Joshua Sasse appeared in the last three episodes of creator Dan Fogelman's The Neighbours (2012) and was asked to audition for this show, but nobody told him until he got there that it was a musical and he'd have to sing for Alan Menken.
- #030
Creator Dan Fogelman knew from Timothy Omundson's first audition that he was perfect for King Richard, but ABC executives wanted to launch a big star. Fogelman kept backing him, yet it took five months for Omundson to learn officially that he had the part: the rest of the cast was announced in mid-December 2013, and Omundson at the end of January 2014.
- #031
Muzz Khan had three auditions on the same day and a heavily pregnant wife who threw everything off by announcing she needed to go to the hospital. He missed one, sent a video for another and made it to the live audition for this show, which he thought went badly, so he was surprised when, two weeks later, he got the call that he'd landed Barry.
- #032
When Muzz Khan was asked to audition for Barry in season two, he was disappointed to find the show wasn't fully available in the UK, so he watched trailers and clips on YouTube to get a feel for it.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work